


Ministry Business

by CaptainErica



Series: Studying Defeats You Eventually [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Potioneer!Draco, They've graduated!, magical animal rights, magical law, on to research and study while working
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 19:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18452960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainErica/pseuds/CaptainErica
Summary: Hermione's job at the ministry has its days. She's working hard, though, trying to make sure that those little frustrations are pushed away slowly but surely, those little nightmares are turned around. Draco is just trying to do his job.





	Ministry Business

The Ministry was, Harry had told Hermione over a long dinner at a muggle pub the night she’d returned from Hogwarts for the last time, a bit of a nightmare. It was the kind of nightmare, Hermione adds to herself as she walks quickly through the atrium, that you became fond of over time. The kind that felt comforting instead of horrifying. It was anxiety-inducing, but you greeted it like an old friend, a reminder that there were still things you needed to work on.

“Rubbish.” Draco had told her when she had mentioned it to him. It was in passing, kind of chiding of her really. They’d been in the lift together, no one else there, and he had made a comment about the whole place making his skin crawl.

Maybe she _was_ full of it. It was an odd way to think of the place you worked. You shouldn’t hate the place you worked, she had been told, but really… It wasn’t that she hated it at all; it was that every day it was apparent what still needed to be done. Every, single day Hermione came up against something that still needed to change, that was still mired in ages old _tradition_.

Every day was a challenge, and she liked that.

“Earth to Granger.” A high, nasally voice says from in front of her desk.

She doesn’t even look up, just waves absently toward a chair that springs to life and moves closer so the person can sit and stop _looming_ over her. She continues her scanning of the decree before her unabated.

There’s a loud sigh, and then the chair stops rattling as the person sits down. “We’ve a thing, you know, I’m supposed to be helping you with it.” The voice says, and Hermione finishes the line she’s on and makes a little mark next to it so that she remembers where she had left off before looking up.

“Oh, Draco.” She says, surprised, though she really shouldn’t be because he’s the only person she knows who talks like that. “I’m sorry, what thing are we working on together? I don’t believe I received a-“ She stops herself as an orange memo flutters into the room and hovers before her. She grabs it out of the air with one hand as the other sets her quill down carefully. “Ah, would it be about potion testing on magical animals?” She asks, reading the note again and noting that it could be about using magical animals in the potions themselves (a thought to shudder at).

“Yes, that would be it.” He says, ankle resting carefully on his opposite knee, leaning back a bit in his chair. His hair is slicked back, she notices, and she hates it; it makes him look reedy and rat-like and pinched. “Guess they decided that the best person to help the war hero was the ex-deatheater.” He says, and though he’s trying to keep it light, there’s an edge of bitterness to it that ruins the whole thing as a joke.

Hermione sighs and sets the memo down, absently flattening it against her desk before looking back up at him. “I’ve heard you’ve been doing rather well at St. Mungo’s.” She says, “so don’t talk like that in here.”

He hates it, Hermione knows, that she refuses to hate him. She can’t figure out _why_ he hates it so much, but he does. Or… well, he doesn’t _hate_ it so much as it annoys him, makes him uncomfortable. She can see the shift to his eyes and the way he almost wants to itch himself; fingers finding his forearm covered in the long sleeves of his fancy robes. They were maybe 6 months out of Hogwarts and she couldn’t fathom the change from even then.

“Who’s been gossiping about me?” He asks, instead of focusing on her request, and she shrugs which makes him scowl lightly; he hated the thought of people talking about him now. He had seemed to be okay with it toward the end of their time at Hogwarts, toward the end of their N.E.W.Ts, but 6 months out and he seemed convinced people only gossiped about the bad things, about his past.

“Molly, Ronald’s mother? She said she had gone in with Fleur and Bill’s children for a normal check-up, saw your name up on a plaque.” She grins just a touch, the smile trying to be bigger than she was allowing. “And your aunt, you know, when I went to visit her and Teddy she told me she was proud of you.”

Draco’s scowl doesn’t seem to know what to do with itself for a moment, before it settles on bewildered. “I’ve never even met her.” He says, and it’s almost a whine which tells Hermione she’s won this round of whatever strange game they’ve been playing with each other since they stepped off the train at King’s Cross in June.

“Plenty of time to do so.” She says, before standing up and taking her wand with her. “We’ll need the archives for this project. I think we’ll need to look into some more historical cases. Tell me about the complaints? I’m assuming you were briefed on them?”

He nods and stands to follow her out of her small office. There had been some restructuring of her department before she had joined, and truly she had never appreciated Minister Shacklebolt or the Scamander family more than when she had found out about it. More inclusivity, more representatives from the different ‘beings’, more open communication… She wasn’t fighting for the rights of magical creatures alone, and there were more people of like mind than she could have imagined to work with.

They leave her office, the door shutting neatly behind them, and walk into a rectangular room with 4 doors. She chooses the one with the bookshelf beside it, and ushers Draco in. Research, her old friend. They would be here a while, and she was quite pleased at the thought.

“How long do you have?” She asks, and he blinks like he had been otherwise focused, and then looks down at his watch.

“I’ve been given the day, and then as needed around my other duties.” He says, a little disdainful. His tone makes her smile and shake her head. “So where are we looking?”

~

“Practices are going well, the team is amazing we are just still figuring each other out, you know?” Ginny says, tossing her long hair over her shoulder as she settles into her seat, hands already reaching for the bowl of meat, a sheet pan at her side waiting for her to form the meat into little balls.

Hermione hums, focus mostly on getting the charm right to get her oven to the right temperature. “Well, you’ve only been, ah, first _string_ is it? For a few weeks, I’m sure there’s still some things you all need to work out.” She says after almost a beat too long.

Ginny hums, “true, but you know I like things to be instant. Like making meatballs, that should be instant, why am I rolling them by hand?”

Hermione laughs, shaking her head and turning away from the oven, certain she’s got it working right. “Because you also like to work for your meals?” She suggests, and Ginny rolls her eyes before leaning forward to find her wand amongst the ingredients and dishes littering the table.

“Not quite as much as I like eating.” She responds, before flicking her wand and making the meat form itself into perfectly sized balls.

Hermione allows herself a moment of jealousy at the ease with which Ginny performs such a simple, domestic spell, but then reminds herself that Ginny had had years of watching her mother do them that gave her an edge. “True.” Hermione says, wiping her hands on a towel and moving to hand it to Ginny to wipe hers off. “Someday I’ll make you and Harry and Ron do a full meal without magic.” She teases, and Ginny laughs, shaking her head.

“Bad idea, Ron would _not_ manage it. He’s better at these spells than me, let him use them!” Ginny protests, laughing, and Hermione finds herself giggling along with her for a moment, an image of Ron trying to do things by hand and failing running through her mind. “ah, but you know who I would absolutely pay to watch try to do something without magic? Malfoy.” Ginny says, shifting in her seat to lean forward and out of the way of the meatballs. “You know I saw him lace his cloak with a spell the other day.” She says, like it’s a huge surprise.

“Ginny, his cloaks have a thousand laces or more, if he did that by hand I fear he’d never leave his house.” Hermione says, amused, and this just makes Ginny laugh for a little bit before she calms down, moving as the last meatball settled itself on to the pan, so she could put it into the oven.

She pushes her hair back as she straightens up, and turns to Hermione, a hand going to her hip. “You would know, I suppose; heard you were doing some project with him? I’m surprised, really, we know his thoughts on magical animals…” This was clearly the main reason Ginny had brought Draco up to begin with, but Hermione lets the annoyance of that pass even though her lips purse a touch in response.

“Well, people change.” She says after a moment, “And it’s a couple of things, actually. A case is being put together, some groups are asking for potions to not be tested on animals any longer, well… specifically magical animals. We’re looking through the laws on protection of the different species, but also into whether testing on magical animals is even necessary.” She shakes her head. “Well, you remember how he was in school; he hates anything being done that is unnecessary, and now he’s even more militantly against anything being done that could be considered strictly against the laws and protections we already have in place.”

Ginny is just watching her, considering, but then she nods and moves back to the table to get something else to peeling itself and chopping itself. “Tell me more?” She asks, and Hermione very eagerly does.

It was a fascinating case, and while Draco Malfoy was interesting to talk to, he wasn’t really her _friend_ , was he? He was just… Draco, just a strangely handsome man teenager that had been dropped into her life at seeming random.


End file.
